TALK – BIRMINGHAM

How to Work with a Fabricator

How, as an artist do you retain the essence of your studio practice when you outsource elements of production? How do you communicate the subtleties and nuances within these forms to others? This can be particularly challenging when engaging non-art fabricators. What, too, are their expectations in terms of communication style and content, from initial brief writing to the project’s management?

PSC Co-Director Lucy Tomlins with be at STEAMhouse in Birmingham this April to talk through the process and practicalities of working with a fabricator, how you scope out and specify a job, how these relationships work, and things to consider to ensure things run smoothly.

An experienced project manager, she oversees the organisation’s fabrication and technical services available to artists, architects, designers and others. She has delivered large-scale public art commissions including award winning The Smile, designed by Alison Brooks / ARUP for the London Design Festival and HTA Design LLP’s public art commission for Countryside’s East City Point scheme in Canning Town, as well as smaller commissions for gallery exhibition by earlier-career artists, such as Eva Fàbregas: Those things that your fingers can tell, Kunstverein München, Munich. In tandem with her work for PSC, Lucy maintains her own sculpture practice.

This event is part of the Sculpture Production Award 2019. Open to emerging artists working in 3D, based within the UK but outside of London, the Award provides six sculptors with skills mentoring and a £1,000 production grant towards the realisation of a new work. One of the six artists will also be invited to exhibit at the Coventry Biennial 2019. Find out more.

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The Sculpture Production Award 2019 is funded by Arts Council England and Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre. With special thanks to CVAN EM, CVAN South East, Eastside Projects, New Art West Midlands, STEAMhouse and the Yorkshire & Humber Visual Arts Network for supporting the cost of administering the Open Call to ensure it remains free to apply.